I think I've said this over past couple yrs (is it groundhog day?). I've (we've) definitely said it last June (how quickly C's organization forgets). CELTICS ARE A HORRIBLE REBOUNDING TEAM! They're getting slaughtered by the Knicks 2nd team! Example: end of ? quarter. PP has the ball waiting for the time to tick down before making his move. The whole world knows he is most likely gonna take the last shot. He makes his move and takes the j. The other 4 Cs are outside and just watch the shot! Not one teamate made a move to crash the boards! Trajic. Next, watch the ______ (you insert the team cause the C's are still last in rebounding). All these young bucks are doing nothing but crashing the boards. Esp since the C's don't box out.

"Me big. Me great rebounder". Wrong! I'm not saying the players are saying that, but it seems to be the attitude of DA/Papile. Well, lets get Murphy (hey Cs coulda use their last spot for a true rebounder or kept Erden) who is slow, not productive.

To rebound (if someone tries to box you out) it takes skill. You have to judge the shot. Is it long. Is it short. Is it off to one side. That gives you a head start. A running start. Missed 3s usually have big bounces off the rim and 'long' rebounds. Only DW, BB and RR have this feel. But 2 of them are guards and the other an undersized pf. So the team has to rebound, box out collectively. But, they don't. PP and RA who get most of the minutes don't crash the boards (? maybe RA is too tire from running to get open). Coaches don't demand it from bench players (Krystic does try). DA/Papile don't aquire players w/ the natural instict to rebound (or let Powe go). Many experts say the C's basically play a zone defense. And they do. But, that is no excuse that when the shot goes up, then you put a body in front of your closest opponent, be strong and not just watch the shot. Another theory for the lack of C's offensive boards is: 'the C's just get back to prevent the fast break'. Wrong again. It only takes one usually guard to stay back to prevent a fast break. Nobody fast broke on the Cs when Russell was getting O boards. Dennis Rodman is going into the HOF and no team dominated the Pistons or Bull during his time their. Moses Malone's teams never got dominated by the fast break. There are sometimes exceptions. Showtime of LAL in the 80's meant that a team had to be careful about crashing offensive boards. But, the Knicks and most teams in the current NBA aren't that dominant a running fast break team.

Common Doc. Stop only preaching to "play harder" in the time-out huddles and instruct on how to do things better. Otherwise the C's will be crying in their green beer long before June.

Papile is the constant since Pitino. One of the reasons that I don't care for DA. He comes on board. Pitino was a disaster w/ getting rid of Billups, not giving the young players a chance, drafting______ 5th. Just making a shamble of the team when couldn't draft Duncan. Then that college full court trap! (Stockton use to laugh at it). Trajic. Wallace (and Papille) try to save their jobs by risking the future by trading away J Johnson for a player who was never an all star and always an underachiever- Rodney______. Most would agree that the Cs were horribly managed in those years. Here comes DA. If I took over ineptness, I'd clean house. DA keeps Wallace and Papille!!! Wait a minute. If these guys are poor talent evaluators and risk the future of the team, what is the reason for keeping them. What value do they have? Is it an ole boy network? In my opinion, Cs still do a bad job of talent evaluation. Only one draft pick on the team of the past 4yrs. Even the free agents are almost over the hill type of players (I have nothing against wiley vets, but C's have lack of quality mid 20s players). All DA had to do was retain/build a bench. Backups! Don't need lottery players or all-stars. Just role players w/ good chemistry. Result: no shooters, no rebounders. No shut down defensive players. What is the one constant in all this?..... Lou Papile. The high school evaluator. Some of these moves seem like a high school summer league coach would make. By the way. What is his title? Senior advisor? What does that mean? Is he getting paid to do what? I think when the Cs are getting the Telfairs, Murphys, Giddens, etc (Bradley's tenure to be seen) that Papile may be calling the shots more than DA. Also, why is the Maine NBADL so horrible? "Lou, we'll give you the D-League for you to play with". Whatever, he's been an advisor and the Cs do a poor job of aquiring fresh young talent.

I never realized how bad of a rebounding team we were until the other night against a smallish NY team. I can understand wanting to get back on defense but geez we really have no chance of getting offensive rebs the way we fall back.

On defense it's either 2-3 guys fighting for the ball and then it gets tipped away into the opposing teams hands. BBD looks like someone's nephew trying to rebound against his uncle.

C'mon fellas we should be outrebounding this Knicks team with no problem.

I know this sounds crazy given how he has played, but I hope Doc gives Murphy some minutes. The guy can board. Last year he averaged 11 rebounds a game. The year before 10 rebounds a game. admittly he has stunk up the joint since arriving, but right now baby isn't setting the world on fire and Krystic is doing worse. Posted by jtkl

Exactly, I would love to see Murphy get minutes. I am sick and tired of seeing Baby miss jumpers he should not be taking. His role is to defend and take inside shots.

I like Doc. But during the huddles he doesn't seem to give any constructive advice (maybe they don't play back that imfo). It's just 'play harder'. Tell the players to stop watching the ball, pick out someone and box out. Stop getting pushed around. At least 2 players sometimes go to the offensive board (the offensive play doesn't have to always stop just because someone shoots the ball. It doesn't stop for other teams against the C's). Jeff Green do a McHale and knock someone down (can't say that on tv). It's like in football. After the first hit, you calm down. JG needs some motivation to play tough, stop gettin 'gansta'd', and stop playing scared.

The celtics REACH for rebounds more than any team ive ever seen, they dont GO to the ball. I cant count how many times we are in position and an opponent flys in and grabs the board while we are WAITING for it. It seems to me the celtics are ok with this too, they are always making excuses like we get back on defense to prevent the fast breaks, trapping, etc. You would think theyd learn how important it is to board after last years debacle against the lakers. I never hear doc talking about rebounding, it just doesnt seem to be a point of emphasis, and I dont know why. If we are getting this beat up against the smallest team in the playoffs, whats going to happen when we play bigger and better rebounding teams?

I think that's the strategy against the C's (it was Phil Jackson's). "Crash the boards against them. They're not good at rebounding". (All teams try and analyse the stats). And the Cs don't do anything to counteract it.

We lost game 7 due to lack of rebounding as well. I dont see it changing that much because like someone mentioned....Doc doesnt seemed concerned with it.

I say fight fire with fire. If you arent gonna get any defensive rebounds, atleast even he field by getting your own offensive boards and 2nd chance points. The best guy right now on the team for that is Kristic...so we'll see. Doc said today that he will play Kristic...maybe that helps...but after watching film, I hope we wont have to see that kind of disparity again. You can get away some games by losing the rebound battle, but sooner or later......

One more thing. Carmelo got SEVENTEEN rebounds against the Cs!!! He who normally gets 4 boards (ok ave 6, but 2 are offensive boards which often comes naturally to someone who is so offensive minded). Cs need to be shamed. Good thing it wasn't a game 7.

good answer. papile's a common thread through all of that. i guess i just think he's farther down the decision making chain and has less of danny's ear than you do.

we out rebounded the knicks by 10 in game1, including offensive. i'm reckoning some or most of the rebounding woes of game2 had to do w/ the goofy, preparation-lacking package of 'melo and four guys' the knicks threw at us. no big deal IMO, at least no more than usual. doc and frank and the extra preparation afforded by the playoff schedule will clean it up. until the issue rears it's head again. which, of course, it will.

In Response to Re: Rebounding : Exactly, I would love to see Murphy get minutes. I am sick and tired of seeing Baby miss jumpers he should not be taking. His role is to defend and take inside shots.Posted by CelticFanLA

Too small to defend his position and his inside shots usually end up going the other way on the other side of a swat..... fortunately we have lots of posters hoping that they will re-sign BBD to a huge contract because he is a building block for the future..... lmao

In Response to Re: Rebounding : Too small to defend his position and his inside shots usually end up going the other way on the other side of a swat..... fortunately we have lots of posters hoping that they will re-sign BBD to a huge contract because he is a building block for the future..... lmaoPosted by TheDUDDER

Jermaine will solve some of this problem with extended minutes. The funny part is Boston dominated the boards and just won game one and got killed on the boards and just one game two. This team makes you bite your nails brfore dominating the last couple of minutes. Funny team to figure out. I need to see anything from the bench Friday in order for this team to go deep into the playoffs.

interesting posts....I think the games are close only because we don't rebound. KG rebounds well and JON when he plays. As many posters said, it isn't stressed. If it was the C's would be better at it. I am hoping the 2nd unit will step up anad start playing better because it could be a short playoff if the knicks are giving us trouble.

When we won the title back in 08 they were still poor at rebounding. Just asd not bad as these last two seasons. It wasnt as bad with Shaq in the middle, but they better clean it up quick to continue to move forward.

Papile is the constant since Pitino. One of the reasons that I don't care for DA. He comes on board. Pitino was a disaster w/ getting rid of Billups, not giving the young players a chance, drafting______ 5th. Just making a shamble of the team when couldn't draft Duncan. Then that college full court trap! (Stockton use to laugh at it). Trajic. Wallace (and Papille) try to save their jobs by risking the future by trading away J Johnson for a player who was never an all star and always an underachiever- Rodney______. Most would agree that the Cs were horribly managed in those years. Here comes DA. If I took over ineptness, I'd clean house. DA keeps Wallace and Papille!!! Wait a minute. If these guys are poor talent evaluators and risk the future of the team, what is the reason for keeping them. What value do they have? Is it an ole boy network? In my opinion, Cs still do a bad job of talent evaluation. Only one draft pick on the team of the past 4yrs. Even the free agents are almost over the hill type of players (I have nothing against wiley vets, but C's have lack of quality mid 20s players). All DA had to do was retain/build a bench. Backups! Don't need lottery players or all-stars. Just role players w/ good chemistry. Result: no shooters, no rebounders. No shut down defensive players. What is the one constant in all this?..... Lou Papile. The high school evaluator. Some of these moves seem like a high school summer league coach would make. By the way. What is his title? Senior advisor? What does that mean? Is he getting paid to do what? I think when the Cs are getting the Telfairs, Murphys, Giddens, etc (Bradley's tenure to be seen) that Papile may be calling the shots more than DA. Also, why is the Maine NBADL so horrible? "Lou, we'll give you the D-League for you to play with". Whatever, he's been an advisor and the Cs do a poor job of aquiring fresh young talent.Posted by docc

2. we shoot a high percentage so we don't have many chances to grab offensive boards

3. we're actually a decent defensive rebounding team, in the top 10 in defensive rebound percentage

4. we play a slow pace, so it doesn't make sense to compare our raw statistics to other teams (i.e. if team A gets 30 rebounds and their opponent gets the same, but team B grabs 35 rebounds but is outrebounded by 20, which is the better rebounding team, A or B?)

5. over the course of the season, our opponents had about the same amount of rebounds as us

6. our rebounding numbers were better with perk in the side, and better still with shaq in the side

7. in game 2, we were forced to double team melo, leaving us outnumbered on the glass

8. we are an old team, we're not going to be dominant on the glass

9. murphy might be a good rebounder, but it doesn't matter if the other team won't miss due to his poor defense

10. kg, rondo and pierce are still above average rebounders for their position

Ultimately rebounds and defense always win. Just ask the Lakers (and Gasol) of last yr. (Cs can win some series, but won't win it all unless they pay more attention to boarding). PP has been a pretty good rebounder esp in his younger days. But , he has never been much of a offensive rebounder (say like a Rondo). He does do many other things, but occasionally trying to O rebound would occasionally help the team.